'Marine Le Pen has presented a more acceptable face for the Front National'

Jon Henley is travelling through France to hear stories in the runup to the elections. In Carpentras, he talks to some of the people who delivered the far right's highest vote in the first round

Marine Le Pen at a Front National parade in Paris on May Day. Photographer France Keyser explains her appeal: 'She's slim, she's in jeans, high heels – she channels a totally different mood.' Photograph: Christophe Calais/Corbis

A photographer called France Keyser from Marseille pointed me in the direction of Carpentras. She has spent the past two years working on a photographic record of the Front National in the south of France, attending meetings, going on rallies, speaking to activists. You can see a selection of her pictures here.

Unfortunately (if unsurprisingly), on May Day the place was practically deserted. It's a small, pretty and very old town not far from Avignon with around 30,000 inhabitants, and in one of the traditional Front National heartlands it distinguished itself during the first round of the presidential elections on 22 April by delivering Marine Le Pen's highest vote: 31.5%, more even than she managed in her home base in the Pas de Calais.

Marion Le Pen, Marine's niece and Jean-Marie's granddaughter, will be standing here in June's parliamentary elections. A law student in Paris, she must stand a very good chance of being one of the first FN MPs since the 1980s (in the 1986 general elections, the FN won 35 seats in the national assembly).

However, the streets of Carpentras were all but empty. I spoke to a handful of locals, one of them a librarian who said she had voted for the radical left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon and two who voted Socialist. Another two voted for Sarkozy, and three said they'd voted for Marine Le Pen. None wanted their full names noted nor their photos taken, each gave a different reason for their choice and each planned to vote differently on Sunday.

Renaud, an insurance agent in his 40s, said Marine was "the only one talking sense on Europe. We're being dictated to by Brussels and the European bank. Why should we be paying for Greece and Portugal? We need to pull out as soon as we can. The euro's a disaster; everything's more expensive, everybody's standard of living has gone down." He said he would vote Sarkozy, "because Hollande will ruin us economically".

Anne-Laure, 34, works part-time in a supermarket and said she had voted FN for the first time. "I had trouble with her father," she said. "He was always too outspoken; too brutal. Marine smiles, she talks sense, she doesn't make outrageous comments. She wants to strengthen the family, help parents, do more for respect and discipline." She thought she would vote Hollande, "because I just can't bear Sarkozy. He's like a spoiled child."

Only one mentioned immigration. Pierre-Andre, 48, a delivery driver, said the FN had changed. It no longer wanted to "send people home," he said, "but we have to stop more coming, and stop those who are here living off benefits, getting preferential treatment. I agree. You should have to work for benefits; you should have to adopt certain principles to become French. And those kids of immigrants who spit on France … Zero tolerance." He wasn't sure whether he would vote Sarkozy, or spoil his ballot, or simply not bother.

France the photographer says that in her view, having spent nearly two years with the party, it hadn't really changed very much. "Marine has presented a more acceptable, more consensual face," she said. "She's broadened the party's themes, talking about Europe, the economy, living standards; championing the workers and those who feel hard done by. She's slim, she's in jeans, high heels – she channels a totally different mood. She avoids offending people unnecessarily."

Plus, she's succeeded in attracting a different kind of support, France said: "Managers, bank staff, students. And she's removed a lot of their hangups; down here at least, in the south, FN supporters are completely open about their views." But ultimately, she felt, when it came down to its activists, the Front National remained the same. "For me, the core values are still the same," says France. "The Front National's heart hasn't changed. Its supporters are still united around a set of basic themes: preference for French citizens, defence of Christian values, national identity, denouncing immigrants. Among the party activists, anyway, if not among the voters, that's what they hold dear."